Welcome to the Licia & Mason Beekley Community Library.

​News

We have the Olympics streaming in our living room here at the library. Come by for your favorite books or DVDs and get warm, comfortable and watch the games from Pyeong Chang.

Enter the BookFriends Raffle and Win a Kayak! Win a Dagger Zydeco 9.0 Kayak! Tickets are $10.00 each, available at the library. Only 500 tickets will be sold. The drawing will be on Saturday, June 23rd, 12:00 pm at the Library and the winner need not be present to win. Formore information please stop by or call the library at 860-379-7235.

The library now offers streaming video with Kanopy! Watch over 30,000 films including must see classics from The Criterion Collection, your favorite documentaries from PBS, or dramas from BBC. Indulge in indies and world cinema sourced from award-winning filmmakers, including New Day Films, Kino Lorber, The Video Project, California Newsreel and many others. All of Kanopy’s titles are instantly available with no holds and no waiting. Click on the Resources tab above for more information.

​Story Time with Miss Nicole Story time follows the New Hartford Elementary School calendar. Wednesdays 11:15 for Stories and Finger Plays with Miss Nicole followed by playtime. Ages 0-3, Fridays 10:30 with Miss Nicole for Stories and Finger Plays followed by arts and crafts. Ages 3-5

Pajama Story Time with Miss Val. Story time follows the New Hartford Elementary School calendar. Thursdays 6:45 for Pajama Storytime with Miss Val followed by activities and crafts. Ages 3-6

The Ideal House. From the Fermata Art Foundation's international exhibit Let's Build a Roof Over the World, an art show with drawings and paintings by students from Nagorno-Karabakh and Naples, Itlay. On display through the month of February

Historical Lecture Series at the Beekley: Presented by Hamish Lutris, Associate Professor of History at Capital Community College.

Abraham Lincoln: The Life of an American President.Perhaps more than any other president, Abraham Lincoln embodied the possibilities inherent in the American dream. Born in a log cabin, he rose through self-education to the highest office in the land. However, he was considered by many to lack the qualifications needed for the intellectual and political demands of his position. This program will explore the life and personality of this powerful but surprisingly enigmatic figure in our history, including his childhood, professional career and political ambitions., Saturday, February 17th at 1:00 pm.

Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, and the Transformation of the Civil War. The Civil War began as a Constitutional conflict, but ended as a crusade to abolish the institution of slavery. This talk will explore the role of a transformation in the thinking of the President, Abraham Lincoln, and how this transformation in his thinking led to the transformation of the entire war and, as a result, the history of the United States. Saturday, March 17th at 1:00 pm.

Men to Match my Mountains: Mountain Men and the Opening of the West. Beginning in 1803, Americans explored the west, looking for freedom, space, and money. They found all three, often in deadly quantities. This talk will center on the first people to explore the Rocky Mountains, seeking out the fur-bearing wealth of the wilderness. It will talk about the mountains themselves, the hold they had on the imaginations of America, and the fate of many of the ‘mountain men’ who blazed the trails that made today’s highways. Saturday, April 7th, 1:00 pm

Hell on Wheels: The Wild West. From the 1850s until the 1890s, the West was a dangerous place, one that took a high human toll before it was 'civilized' in the 1880s and 90s. This talk will focus on three aspects of that danger: cattle, which drew cowboys and big business out west; Indians, who contested that expansion doggedly; and the railroad, which served to draw the nation together and subjugate Native Americans. Each contributed to the reality and mythology of the West, and remain powerful images today. Saturday, May 12th, 1:00 pm.

​National Beat Poetry Festival. The 8th "Woman Scream" International Poetry and Arts Festival . "Flashlights of Hope". A tribute to mothers, as guides of a new generation committed to a life without violence, and to mothers who have lost their daughters as a result of it. Numerous artists will be performing that day including Colin Haskins, Debbie T Kilday, Robert C Fullerton, Viviana Duncan, Izikhotane, JoAnne Bauer, Prince A McNally, Amy Marie, Elizabeth Fontaine, Jessica Brooke Miller, Nbs Malay and Barbara Ehrentreu. More will be announced soon. Open mic for those who want to read their own poetry. Saturday, March 10th, 3:30 pm.

​​​For more information on these programs, please contact the library at 860-379-7235.​

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​"A library is the home for the imagination."- Lisa Scottoline, author